Changing Tides by Phoebe Rolleston

Phoebe Rolleston is a Melbourne born artist that changed the moody, sombre tones of her hometown for the fresh and poppy hues of Byron Bay, but her design friendly pieces still make any room glow. We stock a curated range of her pieces, available to view and purchase through our showrooms. 

Phoebe Rolleston’s work is a collision of considered colour and brash, brush strokes that occur on scale and with apparent haphazardness, but her approach is more of an interaction with colour and the results speak to the connection she has with the canvas and her technique.

“My work is based around colour,” Rolleston says on the phone while holidaying on the Witsundays. “It’s layered bold strokes and I try to make those strokes as instinctual as I can. My mum’s an artist and she will say it’s finished, but I will know it needs more,” she says emphatically. “If I’m not happy I’ll just paint over it,” she adds with nonchalant artistic charm.

At the beginning of 2021, Rolleston, her husband and three young boys made the envious decision to embark on a sea change. Sensing an opportunity, the family left their home in Melbourne and relocated to Byron Bay.

“It’s a different lifestyle now. Melbourne is about dinner and going out,” Rolleston reminisces, “but it’s healthier now and the kids are in school, and I have plenty of time to paint.”

That her painting is about colour and brushstroke could be misread. True as it is, that can be said about most artists. Rolleston’s work is about tones that swirl and mix with one another to create layers of paint with textural difference. Take, for instance, Tallow Sweeps and The Under Mess, two of Rolleston’s new pieces in the show, their steely blues and reds are laid over a base of ecru and natural paint strokes, their contrast is bold and pleasing, yet neither colour overpowers the other, resulting in harmonious and united pieces.

“You go through stages, in particular colours or particular feelings and right now it’s red. It’s a grown-up colour,” she says solidifying the new palette and what the coastal shift has brought. “I’m trying to maintain the mix between here and Melbourne [and] it’s great to mix the two. The feel and the colours around me have made my work.” But Rolleston admits that the influences of her two homes “gives you an eclectic blend of colour.”

“The feeling and the colours around me, have made my work. The colours of Melbourne last year, in lockdown, were darker,” she says, “and the change of scenery has been great and inspiring, giving me a different point of view.”

Changing Tides is Rolleston’s first show since moving north, featuring 23 works in acrylic and oil, the new work is the embodiment of the significant shift in mindset and location, something she sees as honest personal expression.

As her kids run away and down the beach, Rolleston is laughing, “hopefully they’re still alive, they’ve just walked off to find my husband. It’s nice here. Hopefully everyone can come up from Melbourne, it’ll be great to able to celebrate with everyone.”